Although I didn't get a chance to meet a farmer in
Toronto or up north I have visited a phenomenal world renown garden in the
small town of Yountville, California.
It was the garden for the 3 michelin
starred restaurant, The French Laundry. Placed right across the street from the
restaurant, the garden is about 3 acres and is tended to daily by a gardening
staff lead by a farmer named Tucker Taylor.
Unfortunately Tucker Taylor wasn't
working the day I visited the garden but before my trip to California I knew I
was going to visit the French Laundry and knew of Tucker Taylor. Farming is not
just a job for him, he's really incredibly passionate about it.
The French Laundry
garden is something he is definitely proud of. It is incredibly neat and
organized to a tee; even the chicken coop is incredibly clean I think it's even
cleaner than my bedroom.
The garden across the street from the restaurant was
thought of by Thomas Keller to provide local sustainable produce to his
restaurants in Yountville which is Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, Ad Hoc, and of
course the famed French Laundry.
It provides microgreens, seasonal vegetables,
fresh eggs, herbs, any produce you could possibly think of. Taylor is very
consciencious of how much water they use for the plants and the use of the sun
and some greenhouses for vegetables that need more heat and sunlight.
Everything in the garden is organic.
They do support buying local and
sustainable foods because it costs the restaurant less money to buy produce as
they grow it across the street but also by doing so they help the economy of
Yountville.
It is amazing how passionate Taylor is about gardening. He gets so
excited to tend to his plants because they really are alive and need love and
care. It is something to be excited for when you see the fruits or rather in
this situation the vegetables of him and his team's labour. A farmers job is just as important as a chefs.
The farmer helps care and tend to the vegetable's growth. It is up to the chef to determine a way to cook the vegetable to highlight it's flavours and ensure that vegetable wasn't killed in vain and it was used wisely.
Eat well,
K.M.W.
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